The Danna Gift Show

Spiritual to Christian - My Journey Back to God

• Danna Gift • Season 3 • Episode 1

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In this episode of The Danna Gift Show, Danna discusses her personal journey from learning about God to atheism, to the 'woo woo' spiritual and eventually embracing Christianity. She reflects on the impact of her faith on her relationships, dating life, and personal development. Danna also shares how simplifying her life and focusing on spirituality has transformed her mindset. She discusses her challenges with traditional church practices, the influence of a welcoming non-denominational church, and how connecting with a Christian community helped her grow. Danna emphasizes the importance of questioning beliefs and continually seeking understanding through different experiences, including exploring spiritual practices and reading the Bible. She also touches on the role faith plays in achieving peace and stability amidst life's uncertainties and her plans to explore femininity, masculine energy, and personal development in future episodes.

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If you want to participate and interact with the show, head over to www.dannagift.com where you can submit your topics or questions you want to hear on any upcoming episodes. I'm excited to hear from you!

we seem to think that we know how God operates and we seem to think that God will do this if we do this But I want to challenge that belief because when has Has anything that we've done in our life ever turned exactly the way that we thought it would be? Never. It's always something different. Hello, welcome back to the Danna Gift show. It has been quite a long time since I have released a podcast, probably about a year. So this time period of my life, I have been really focusing on simplifying my life, taking things out that no longer serve me. Really getting clear on the vision and what I want and trying my best to niche down as everyone suggests that we do when it comes to creating content. I'm not going to go through this entire process and explain to you how it happened, unless that's something you want to know, let me know in the comments. But um, today the topic, something that I have implemented into my life that has absolutely changed my perspective, the way I operate, how I function really is the topic of God. I know this is kind of a banger, I guess, to, to start off on, but I think it's a very important part of my journey. And I really wanted to share with you how I went from the woo woo spiritual, more energy based spirituality, to Christianity and believing in Jesus and following God. So let's get into it because this is a very controversial topic. And if you know me, I do not shy away from controversial topics. I kind of, embrace them because at the end of the day, everything I share with you is not fact it's opinion and belief based off of my personal experiences. So if you have different viewpoints and perspectives, I welcome them. There is no judgment, there is no right or wrong. And if you haven't already subscribed, please do so. I will start releasing my videos up on YouTube and I'm excited to just share with you the entire journey because there's a lot that has happened in this past year. As you know, a lot can happen within a year. So Let's dive in. I have to share with you first the beginning of my spirituality and, and kind of in tune ness with it all. I grew up Catholic. if you know a lot of other Filipinos out there, they probably also grew up Catholic, which is basically, a much more rigid and strict. Church. We still believe in God, but the structure of the church was very different. It was full of, repeating psalms and scripture and sitting down and kneeling and standing up at this exact time. And it was just a lot of rules and regulations. And so, When I was younger, my parents did used to force us to go to Catholic, Church, but by the time I was 13, my parents didn't make it a thing that we had to do. We could choose to go to Catholic Church. With that option available, I chose not and so I kind of went on my own little journey I even went into atheism where I didn't really believe in any God But then things happened in my life that were just so unexplainable that I had to believe in something But I didn't know what to call it and the word God was kind of triggering for myself at the moment and so When I went through one of my very tough parts of my life where I was going through a divorce, I had just moved into my own apartment. When I got into this new space, I was very, very down emotionally, mentally, physically, I wasn't taking care of myself. I was very, I was distraught. I was depressed. And so I find it very humbling that most people actually turn towards God during their toughest times, which is crazy because in the Bible, if you read more of the Bible and seek to understand, you actually see that this is part of the process of, of God bringing us through these trials and tribulations so that we seek him and sometimes We don't hear him right away, so things kind of have to get worse before they get better. But that, that's just evolution in general, right? I was experiencing a tough time in my life, and I had really stepped into the church for the first time in over a decade during this time period. And when I stepped into the church, it was Hillsong Church, I remember, it was like the most non denominational church you could find, very unbiased, where they welcome everyone. And honestly, I felt so overwhelmed and oddly kind of upset with myself for having gone so long without seeking or speaking to God and really only speaking to him when I needed him, needed him when I was like going through really tough times, but never actually fully worshipped God to thank him for everything that had happened in my life. And so when I stepped into this church, I felt an overwhelming sense of of sadness for myself, but also an overwhelming sense of excitedness of how it felt to be in a place of this kind that felt very welcoming. Because whenever I used to go into the Catholic churches, It wasn't very welcoming. It didn't feel welcoming. I got turned away several times. I used to have pink hair back in college it was like magenta pink. I thought it looked cool at the time But yeah, I got turned away from the church quite a bit and so going into this church especially never having been in a Christian church was very mind blowing to me and It felt good So I had this feeling in my heart, everything was telling me that this was where I needed to be. And so I pursued God. That was the start, the beginning of my pursuit of God, that was probably about maybe six years ago now. And then during that entire process, I've kind of went up and down many different roller coaster rides with God and Jesus and all that, which is what I'm here to share with you today. As I continued to seek God, I ended up connected with a group that sold life insurance and all of them were very Christian based and they all went to church together and it was just like this whole thing and I got involved in that and it was. very transformative in a way because it helped me to develop consistency with showing up in the church. It was also the time when I was still in real estate. I was making pretty good money from that over six figures. Um, I was tithing 10 percent of my income. So I had given, you know, over 13 K. I can't even remember how much I donated at one time, but I think overall it ended up being Like 25k I had given away for the year, which was crazy. Um, but yeah, I, I was, I was just deep in it and very devoted, loyal follower. And as you continue to pursue these things, you find other people who are kind of on the same track. And I ended up in this Bible study group and this Bible study group was really, really good, but they were very extreme in their beliefs, right? Like they would, they would condemn people of same sex. relationships. It was very difficult for me to hear because at that time, I was also hanging out with one of my really good friends at the time. And she was going through a time where she believed that she might, be interested in the same sex. And so, I just, I struggled a lot to accept that and believe that that's what God, like that God is gonna send us to the bad place because we have feelings for the same sex. Even the Bible, I was trying to read it, but it's so crazy when you are starting off getting into the book of God and Bible. It's crazy. kind of difficult to understand the parables and what the message or lesson is in each part of these books. And, when I started to dive into it, it was just one, I got the freaking King James version, which if you've ever read anything King's James, it's like, thine, when thine, blah, thy. Like, it's just not understandable English for me. So I needed to get the simplified version. So I got the New Living Translation. Uh, and also for those of you who are interested in starting to read the Bible, the Life Application Bible, New Living Translation is really, really good because it has portions of it that help you kind of understand the scripture a little bit more from a life application point of view. So Really, really good to start off. So that was my like first Bible. And as I dove more into it, I had more questions pop up. I was, I was struggling to believe in Jesus. I was struggling to understand if he was a prophet or if he was actually the son of God. And there was just a lot of questions that rose around it. And plus I am kind of one of those people who likes to question all of the, conspiracy theories and which one is actually true, which one are created by crazy people. But I will say I am very much invested in a lot of, conspiracy theories because I think there is a lot of truth to it. And I think it's very strange that people try and silence certain pieces of information, if you know what I mean. So anyways, I'm not going to go down the conspiracy route, but yeah, so I, I was just questioning a lot and at that time, as I was in the middle of questioning, I was still reading the Bible every single day. I was still very faithful and loyal and reading up and trying to understand God and praying every day. I ended up dating Dylan and Dylan at the time was definitely not into Jesus, God, Christianity, the Bible, any of it. As a matter of fact, he had a resistance to when I would even say God. When I would bring up the Bible or talk about the Bible, he had a lot of questions about it, but you can tell it was in a manner that was, very not comfortable with it. And you know, when you're with somebody and you spend time with somebody enough, eventually you kind of adopt their beliefs. No matter how strong you are in your own morals and grounding, if you choose to spend time with that person, they are going to affect your thoughts and your desires and patterns and habits, all of that. Right. And this was my person. This is, this is my person. I'm still with him today. And so, because of the delicate state I was in, I ended up straying away from God again. And I got really heavy deep into the spiritual side. The more woo woo spiritual energy, Reiki, all of that stuff, the medicines, the mushrooms, all of it. And so, as I dove into that, that's, I mean, it opened up a whole new world for me. I just started to explore a lot of the spiritual side and got into books like Joe Dispenza, learning about energy. And although Joe Dispenza also talks about God, I wasn't really incorporating that into my studies, I guess I would call God the universe. And that was, that was, Kind of where it's stuck at for, for a good bit of time. And I mean, I went deep into this stuff. I was like, Dylan was doing Reiki sessions on me. I was, heavy into understanding self empowerment, oh, and manifesting. I was heavy into just manifesting and like affirmations and all of that stuff and never really went the God route. And so. Yeah, and I have no regrets about that. I think that it was a very important time period of my life where it was absolutely necessary because I do believe that God speaks to us in ways that we couldn't possibly understand. He sends people, experiences, things to happen within our lives so that we can hear him in the ways that we understand. Because we seem to think that we know how God operates and we seem to think that God will do this if we do this But I want to challenge that belief because when has Has anything that we've done in our life ever turned exactly the way that we thought it would be? Never. It's always something different. And so I just, I challenged that because I think the way God operates is very much outside of our scope of understanding. So anyways, I, I went down this whole route and April, I did my ayahuasca journey. Which, I can tell you all about that in another episode, but the ayahuasca journey was like my final big spiritual moment where I was heavily still kind of in the spiritual woo woo side of things. And when I came back, I think about a week later after I did my ayahuasca journey, Dylan started asking about God. Um, which was very interesting because he had never had an interest in God. Now, I want to say this because I never fully stopped talking to God. I just called it the universe and I was very mindful and like kind of hesitant to say the word God in front of Dylan, but in the back of my mind, I would say the universe, just so that it wasn't controversial. I was, I was being, I was playing on the fence or trying to kind of please everyone. And so I would say the universe, but I did still believe in God, just didn't know, It wasn't like heavy. It wasn't like reading the Bible. It wasn't like trying to understand God from that point of view. I was thinking more like God was just in the energy, right? I thought God, energy, and the universe all were kind of one. So like the, like the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. I guess. When Dylan started asking about God, I, I was like, oh, yeah, I would love to talk about God. Let me Let me put away whatever it is that I'm doing and let's talk about it So we had a really good heart to heart and he had a lot of questions about it. He was telling me about he how he was just curious about God because he feels like all of the entrepreneurs and people that he really looked up to spoke to God and spoke of God and so because of that and where we were at which is like, we're still on our entrepreneur journey. It's kind of a rollercoaster. Some months we really win, some months we really don't. And it's just like, right now we're still figuring out balance, but all of the men and entrepreneurs that he looked up to all believed in God and are, we're all doing well. And so that was kind of what opened up the, the, the interest, peaked his interest. And so when we had that conversation and the heart to heart, I swear it was like the doors just opened. It felt like it was the last missing piece for us to be able to actually get some stability when it comes to entrepreneurship and actually become abundant in our financial space. And I mean, God's been working this entire time, if we really, if I really look at my life and look at how the world has transformed around me, I mean, I'm living in one of the nicest apartments in Scottsdale, Arizona, and life looks very different than it did a year ago where I was, you know. Dead ass broke, fricking selling everything I own, sold the house that I own just to make bills paid so we can have food on the table. That was a year ago. So life looks very different. God's been working with us, but we haven't been giving him praise for it. And so I think this last part of our chapter felt like that was what was necessary for us to give thanks and truly seek God for us to get the final. fruits of our labor, if you will. And so, yeah, we just dove deep. We, we started talking about it all the time. We stopped, uh, smoking as much. We started trying to follow the word of God the best we can, because everything else that we had done just wasn't necessarily working. And, I say all this because I truly, truly honor and cherish the moments that I explored my spirituality, the woo woo side of things and energy and all of that, because I think that it was very much necessary for me to understand the Bible in the way that I do now. When I read the Bible, I can understand where energy is coming to play. I can understand where mindset and, and perspective needs to come into play because I explored woo woo spiritual side, I was able to have deeper introspective thoughts where I was pondering things on a whole new level, questioning my state of being, questioning the, the ways that I operate and really taking a close look at myself. All of that was necessary to develop myself enough to understand the Bible in the ways that I do now. And so I was very, I'm very, very grateful for the journey that I went through in order to get to this level of love and honor with God. Now, it's not a perfect journey where I'm at. I absolutely have days where I'm like, I'm really, really into the word and on fire for God. And then other days where I, maybe didn't get my blessing that I was asking for or hoping for and maybe I get a little angry with God and sometimes I, I'm like wondering what I'm doing wrong or do I deserve this and all of that stuff. So I'm very much human in that aspect, right? We're, none of us are perfect, but I will say. That the more that I continue to seek God and stick with the routine, I make myself read the Bible every single day, even if I'm not feeling it, because the discipline is where the fruits will show. Right? So, I, I still do all that, but even though, even if I'm not like necessarily heavily feeling it in my heart, ultimately seeking and understanding God is going to help me to have an unshakable faith, which is really where I'm headed towards right now is my focus is to have unshakable faith. That's kind of my journey of how I began to see God. Now I go to church every Sunday and honestly, without God, I don't know if I would have the amount of peace that I have, even though the world is chaotic around me, literally we're about to approach another election between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. And my finances are still kind of up and down. I'm like at the tail. I feel like I'm at the tail end of getting some stability within the income. Things are turning, right? Things are looking good and getting better, but they're not exactly where I want them to be. And so I'm kind of like in this, like I said, it's a roller coaster. One month we're really, really good. Another month we're horrible and hitting in the negative. So it's kind of like fluctuating right now. Um, And so even though all of this is going on, I will say that because I cling to God so closely and I ground myself in his word every single day, the amount of peace that I'm able to achieve, even though the world is chaotic, has been substantial and probably the number one thing that has actually allowed me to find peace within myself. And even to step into femininity, which that is a whole another story. I would love to talk about femininity and God and how I believe it all ties together and how it's almost kind of necessary, Especially if you're single to have God in your life in order to achieve that level of, uh, flow in your life within your feminine, that's a whole another podcast. I'm definitely not perfect. There are a lot of things that I'm still working on to refine myself, to, to become the best. high caliber woman I am working towards. Small things like I have cut out a lot of the rap music and, and the music that is very raunchy out of my life because I know how powerful words are. I have started to really clean up the diet and the food that I eat because I have to protect my temple. I'm still in the process of understanding how sex plays in the Bible because Dylan and I. I mean, we're still having sex, and I know that a lot of people say that in the Bible that that's a big no no, but I, from what I understand of the Bible, it's not. I mean, he wants us to have sex, obviously, between man and woman, husband and wife, but um, most of it talks about sex. No adultery, which means not having sex with somebody who belongs to somebody else in marriage. So there's just, there's so many different things which I cannot go down the rabbit hole of diving into and I'm sure a lot of people are gonna disagree with my stance on this, but as of right now it's still, it's still something I'm trying to understand. Another fun thing that Dylan and I are trying to get right with God is we are actually we are going to try and get married, um, just him and I under God from what I have also understood that marriage is not something that needs to be done through the government, but it needs to be under the witness of God. And so we still want to have a big wedding and everything we're already engaged or set to. have our wedding in, April is kind of what we're planning, but we still haven't been able to because finances have been like all over. So, we're trying to see if we, if we can select a date and just create our vows and, and make it a very intimate thing and, and get married under God to, to honor him. And, make sure that we're doing right by him. Cause I do, I do question the sex part of it. And please, you know, if you have perspective on it, um, and want to offer that in the comment section. I would love to hear your thoughts on it. If you have scripture or things that you can share so that I can have better understanding. My thing is when it comes to God and Christianity, I never want to condemn people for questioning the Bible. I never want to condemn people for, not following it perfectly, right? Because we are human, we will always be flawed. And if you read the story of Jesus, he oftentimes would allow the people who have sinned the most or had demons within them and bring them into his family. And so not to say that we should openly just curse God and just do whatever the heck we want because, we can and God will always forgive us, but it's meaning to say that if we are not convicted in it, I mean, meaning to say like, we don't have the, uh, internal guidance that we feel from our gut, the Holy Spirit telling us that it, that this is wrong, then, then you're just in a stage of either accepting it as truth or not. And that transition period, I don't think that anybody could really tell you how to live your life according to God because nobody can speak for God. to say what is going to be best for you in your life. Everybody is on their own unique journey. Everybody is, needing to go through the different parts of their lives in order to get closer to God, right? Like I mentioned earlier, my whole searching of spirituality and going to an ayahuasca ceremony and all these things, I felt was necessary. And that's how God spoke to me. And God has always brought me back. And so sometimes sheep stray, right? Sometimes we stray. Yeah. So that's my entire journey. Uh, short, short sized, obviously I kind of just kept the goodies in there, but I would love to hear your guys opinions on, uh, maybe if you were a person who went from spirituality to more Christianity, what was your story, um, and what takeaways you have, anything of that nature would be lovely and much appreciated within the comments, but that's it for today's episode on spirituality to Christianity. My personal journey back to God and I will see you on the next episode. Make sure if you haven't already, please subscribe. I am working to grow this channel, um, bringing the podcast back super, super excited for this because I have so much to share. Um, a lot of the topics are going to be centered around the Bible. femininity, masculine energy, uh, God in Christianity, just a lot of things that I personally have been dealing with the past couple of years, honestly. I have it on my heart to do an entire series of, Teaching women how to step into their femininity. So that is going to be some of my next episodes moving forward I'm going to do the whole series is going to be called boss babe rehab I initially launched this as a coaching program that I wanted to sell But god has placed it in my heart to give it away and so i'm going to be going through that entire journey sharing with you my personal process of How I was in my super masculine and how I stepped into my femininity and what that process was process looks like and hopefully you can take away what you can and create your own unique path to finding your own femininity. So be on the lookout for that. I will be launching that soon and um, thank you for listening and I will see you on the next episode of the Danna Gift show. Bye.